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WildTangent
WildTangent is a Redmond, Washington based game network, privately held in the United States that powers game services for several PC manufacturers including Dell. Collectively, WildTangent’s owned and operated service reaches over 20 million monthly gamers in the United States and Europe with a catalog of more than 1000 games from nearly 100 developers. The company recently announced its upcoming Android games service launching at the end of 2011. It also announced its launch partner is T-Mobile. The company also manages the advertising sales for a group of gaming properties including Mochi Media, Sony Online Entertainment's Free Realms, PopCap, PlayFirst, as well as Artix’s AdventureQuest, DragonFable, Namco, and MechQuest properties. The company owns a patent portfolio covering in-game advertising and app delivery technologies. WildTangent makes money through a combination of online sales, subscription, advertising and micro-transactions using a proprietary micro-currency called WildCoins. WildCoins WildCoins are a micro-currency launched by WildTangent in the fall of 2006 to give gamers a way to pay for gameplay other than full retail purchase. WildCoins work like quarters used at a traditional arcade. Gamers can purchase WildCoins and use them to play any games on the network. Each time the gamer inserts the required number of coins, he or she can play the game for up to 24 hours, or until the user voluntarily exits the game, without having to use more WildCoins. Advertisers can also purchase WildCoins and sponsor free game sessions. If the gamer agrees to see a short video advertisement while the game is loading, the advertiser will insert WildCoins making the game free to the player. The WildCoins model allows customers to rent individual game titles, some of which can only be rented through the WildTangent catalog of nearly 1,000 games. Titles that are available for rent exclusively through the WildTangent console include Torchlight, Defense Grid, Raven Squad, World of Goo, Plants vs. Zombies, and Bejeweled. WildTangent also has a Weekly WildCoin Giveaway every Wednesday. Each link can be used once and gives a single WildCoin. WildClub In November 2008, the company launched a subscription program called WildClub which offers customers access to the company’s patented digital currency, called WildCoins. WildClub offers three tiers of membership: 2-month, 6-month and 12-month which vary in price from $9.99-$6.99. WildClub customers receive 50 WildCoins each month of their membership. On October 24, 2009 WildTangent crossed the one million daily download threshold, less than one year after the launch of its popular WildClub program. Games WildTangent's catalog includes over 1,500 games from 3rd-party developers. Approximately 30 of the games in the WildTangent catalog were produced by the company's own WildTangent Game Studios. The rest of the games on the WildTangent game network are from other game developers and publishers. this includes game like Mall World which the company has represented to integrate major brands like Levis. Originally, WildTangent produced advergames for various companies, including Nike, Coke, and Ford. The company no longer develops advergames. WildTangent used to be a publisher of Sandlot Games. But now, it's only the distributor due to the rebrand of Sandlot Games. Criticism Users have complained that the company's products have an adverse effect on their PC's performance or are intrusive to the user's experience. PC Magazine wrote in 2004 that although the program was "not very" evil, some privacy complaints were justified as the program's user manual states that it may collect name, address, phone number, e-mail, and other contact information and could distribute the collected information with the user's consent. Concerns were also raised about the software's self-updating feature. In 2003, antispyware program Spybot classified Wild Tangent's original Web Driver as a potentially unwanted program (PUP).http://www.safer-networking.org/en/threats/234.html http://www.safer-networking.org/en/updatehistory/2008-08-27.html WildTangent no longer distributes or develops WebDriver. In 2011, WildTangent challenged a patent infringement ruling against itself and Hulu by Ultramercial, LLC, who contended that the two companies had violated its 2001 patent , "Method and system for payment of intellectual property royalties by interposed sponsor on behalf of consumer over a telecommunications network", alleging that the patent was too abstract. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld Ultramercial's patent, stating that it "does not simply claim the age-old idea that advertising can serve as currency. Instead it discloses a practical application of this idea." The court also asserted that the technical elements required to implement the system described were intricate enough to not be abstract. On June 21, 2013, after being ordered by the Supreme Court to re-examine the case, the Federal Circuit upheld its decision and ruled that Ultramercial's patents were valid. See also * Sandlot Games * Wanako Studios References External links * WildTangent Homepage * Fan site run by some of the top contributors of the original Wild Tangent Forum Category:Blasterball Wild